Don’t despair. Our forbears withstood much more than we can even imagine…all in the name of LIBERTY!
The Obama administration has reached its High Water Mark and it is only a matter of time until it is defeated!
William L. Garvin: The Tyranny of a Liberal Education
“Ideally, a liberal education produces persons who are open-minded and free from provincialism, dogma, preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions and judgments; reflective of their actions; and aware of their place in the social and natural worlds. Liberally educated people are skeptical of their own traditions; they are trained to think for themselves rather than defer to authority.” – The American Association for the Advancement of Science
Gene’s Nickle: The 5th Amendment
How many protections are covered in the Fifth Amendment?
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury1, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger2; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb3; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself4, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law5; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.6″
It can be difficult for those of us who respect and admire law enforcement officers to remember that interacting with police is usually the most basic form of governmental dealings any of us have. The 5th Amendment was not written to hinder law enforcement, but to constrain our federal government from over-reaching behavior.
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The Roderic Deane Show – The Liberty Prize
The Liberty Prize
Here is the monologue from today’s Roderic Deane Show:
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I’m calling this show the Liberty Prize for a couple of reasons. First, let me say that liberty is most definitely a gift (or prize, if you will) that we should all cherish. Given the choice between liberty and equality, which would you choose? Can you have equality without liberty? I think not.
What did our Declaration of Independence say? The second paragraph begins:
WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness….
Let me repeat something, “that all men are created equal”. It doesn’t say that all men are created and must remain equal, for how could that be? We are each unique in our appearance and capabilities. We each enjoy our unalienable, God-given rights in ways unique to each of us. Something else that God gave us was a free will. We are allowed to make our own decisions and either reap the rewards of those decisions or suffer the consequences.
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Hoosier Pride
Anyone familiar with my back story knows I graduated from Indiana University. The basketball team went undefeated my Senior year and won the National Championship. In recent years, the basketball program fell into disarray following recruiting violations by their then-coach, Kelvin Sampson. The proud tradition of IU basketball went through very hard times as their new coach, Tom Crean, rebuilt the program.
Last year was the first year since the Kelvin Sampson debacle that the Hoosiers appeared to be coming out of the wilderness and becoming a relevant and competitive program again. This year had very high hopes and, after winning the outright Big Ten Championship, eyes were once again focused on the NCAA Championship.
It wasn’t meant to be. IU was defeated by Syracuse last night in their Sweet Sixteen matchup, ending their magnificent drive back to prominence in men’s college basketball. It was a tough loss!
Nonetheless, I want to share a video my son shared with me that exemplifies the enthusiasm that has returned to Indiana University regarding the basketball program. It definitely cheered me up after last night’s devastating loss.
Side note: Why are they called “Hoosiers”? The way I was taught is that the early settlers of Indiana were fairly welcoming when a visitor knocked on their door, calling out “Who’s There?”, but doing so in a much more colloquial fashion, such as “Hoo ‘shere?”
Gene’s Nickle: The 4th Amendment
Suppose your local police officer or any other government agency official carried a pad of standard forms that allowed him to search your automobile, your office, your computer, or your home. He could fill out this pre-printed form, hand it to you, and conduct his search anytime, anywhere, for anything. Your civil servant wouldn’t need evidence or even a suspicion of a crime to go through your belongings and seize your personal property.
I believe that would rightly be called government tyranny! Sadly, that happened here in America.
The American Colonies were industrious and prosperous, and soon took on the stature of “cash cow” to the British Parliament and the British Crown. At one time or another every commodity in the New World was taxed at a rate designed to discourage trade with American suppliers and encourage business with British competitors.
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Video of Pat Caddell at CPAC
PolitiChicks did what seemingly no one else did and recorded a video of Pat Caddell going off on the GOP at CPAC.
When the Base Stays Home
An item that has captured the interest of both the left and the right this week has been the RNC’s so-called “autopsy” report”. This report is an examination (from the RNC’s standpoint) about what went wrong for the Republican Party in 2012. The minute I heard about it I knew what it was going to say and I knew I would be unimpressed. Why?
As I wrote in a post last week, The GOP’s Shiny, New Object, this was all bound to be just more of the same. As details of the report have now been released, my initial thoughts have been born out. What’s most significant about the report is not so much as what’s in it, but what’s not.
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William L. Garvin: Thanks for Nothing?!
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” Barack Obama, July, 2008
When you have to cancel White House tours, will the Easter egg roll be far behind? What a foolish, foolish display of pettiness and phony politics. In reality, sequestration has not resulted in planes falling out of the skies or thousands of airline passengers waiting in line for hours and hours to be assaulted by TSA personnel. The President who incessantly cried fiscal wolf now says there is no imminent fiscal crisis. Apparently, $16.7 trillion of debt doesn’t really matter! Unfunded liabilities of trillion after trillion after trillion don’t matter either. Record income tax revenue isn’t enough to stem another trillion dollar deficit to add to the national debt but still he insists there’s no immediate crisis. There’s no budget either.
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